Trigger warning added to EM Forster's seminal A Passage to India
Trigger warning added to EM Forster’s seminal A Passage to India saying classic novel contains ‘offensive’ language and ‘attitudes of this time’
- Warning appears in US edition of the novel published by The Modern Library
- A Passage To India, written in 1924, is notable for critique of British imperialism
- Academics described the decision to include trigger warning as ‘troubling’
It’s widely considered as one of the greatest works of 20th Century literature, but now EM Forster’s A Passage To India has been given a trigger warning for readers over its use of ‘offensive’ language and ‘cultural representations’.
Academic fans of the novel, which will mark its 100th anniversary of publication next year, say the warning is ‘wholly inappropriate’ and that the work is being ‘dragged into a culture war that has little connection to the subject matter’.
The trigger warning appears in the latest US edition of the novel published by The Modern Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
It states: ‘This book was published in 1924 and reflects the attitudes of its time. The publisher’s decision to present it as it was originally published is not an endorsement of any offensive cultural representations or language.’
A Passage To India explores the fallout from a false allegation of sexual assault by Adela Quested, a newly arrived British woman in India, against the mild-mannered Dr Aziz.
EM Forster’s A Passage To India has been given a trigger warning for readers over its use of ‘offensive’ language and ‘cultural representations’
Judy Davis and Nigel Havers starred in the epic 1984 film adaptation of A Passage To India
She later withdraws the charge and declares him to be innocent, just in time to stop growing racial tensions from descending into violence.
The book is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s and is notable for its critique of imperialism and depictions of Indians as cultured equals.
It was adapted into an award-winning historical drama in 1984, with David Lean in the director’s chair and starring Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, James Fox and Alec Guinness.
American academic Deborah Appleman told The Telegraph that the decision to include a trigger warning in the US edition of the novel was ‘troubling’.
The book is set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s and is notable for its critique of British imperialism
She said: ‘It is an example of what I have called a kind of presentism, where contemporary readers superimpose their own current values and standards onto the world of a novel, even one as carefully wrought as EM Forster’s.’
British writer Toby Young, who is the founder of the Free Speech Union, added: ‘In the febrile, polarised atmosphere of contemporary America, uninformed readers will take one look at the trigger warning on the front of A Passage to India and assume it was written by a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, rather than a liberal homosexual who was a critic of the British Empire.’
Last month, Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse was similarly given a ‘trigger warning’ over concerns about the ‘attitudes’ portrayed in the 1927 book for American readers.
Woolf’s semi-autobiographical novel tells the stories of trips made by the Ramsay family to their summer home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
Last month, Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse was similarly given a ‘trigger warning’ over concerns about the ‘attitudes’ portrayed in the 1927 book for American readers
A new edition, published by Vintage, will however be prefaced with a statement explaining that the decision to print the novel in its original form is not an ‘endorsement’ of the ‘cultural representations or language’ used in Woolf’s book.
It remains unclear as to which ‘attitudes’ expressed in Woolf’s novel prompted the publisher’s decision to include a disclaimer.
MailOnline has contacted The Modern Library for comment.
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